American football team axes Katy Perry's 'Roar' as game-day anthem following fan backlash

An American football team has cut back on game-day plays of Katy Perry's 'Roar' following complaints from fans.

On Monday (September 16) the Cincinnati Bengals introduced 'Roar' as its pre-game, in-game and post-game song during a match against the Pittsburgh Steelers. However, fans at the Paul Brown Stadium disapproved of the poppy song choice and took to Twitter to complain.

"I think some fans proved that there's an expectation that when the team takes the field, there should be more of a hard-rock, classic-rock song and I know that's what we're going to do [for the next game]," Jeff Berding, a representative for the Cincinnati Bengals, told The Wall Street Journal. "Katy Perry is not going to be the last song you hear before the team takes the field."

Berding also explained that the team had decided to feature 'Roar' so prominently during Monday's match because "the lyrics are sort of on the mark and we thought it was a good song", before admitting that "the social media was obviously very negative".

However, another American football team with a big cat-themed name, the Detroit Tigers, has told The Wall Street Journal that it intends to keep playing 'Roar' at "most if not all... home games this season".

Katy Perry's 'Roar' has spent the last fortnight at Number One on the UK's Official Singles Chart but is expected to be knocked off the top spot tomorrow (September 22) by Jason Derulo's 'Talk Dirty'. 'Roar' is the first single to be taken from Perry's forthcoming album 'Prism', due on October 28, and the singer has recently unveiled another track from the album called 'Dark Horse'.

Perry is expected to debut new material from 'Prism' when she plays the closing night of this year's iTunes Festival at London's Roundhouse on September 30. Support on the night will come from Icona Pop and Iggy Azalea.